Chapter 124 - He Stole My Heart, I Stole His Child

Max POV

Stop Axel. Stop Axel. Stop Axel. I recite the words over and over in my head. I don’t know exactly how or the fucking pretense around stopping Axel, I just fucking know I need to stop Axel from getting to Bailey. Taegan said that the pack will be going crazy, misunderstanding what is happening to their Luna, and I have to stop my son before he ruins any chance of getting Bailey back.

Saying the pack will be going crazy isn’t much in the way of helping me to prepare for what we’re about to fly into. Stopping Axel is my only goal, and everything else will hopefully just fucking work out.

“Max,” the goddess curls her finger, urging me to bend down to her level. I lean over, trying not to fall off Philos, and she kisses my head, then both of my cheeks, making my face turn a bright red for every-fucking-one to see, I’m sure. She chuckles lightly. “You will need this blessing. Focus on your goal.”

Shit. My forehead and cheeks tingle for a moment, but then the sensation fades. What the fuck was that?

She walks to Thyra, doing the same to her. Thyra reacts a lot more gracefully than me, even smiling back like she was grateful for the woman’s tingly kisses.

“Princess, I feel I must warn you that when you fly through the gate, your brother will be on the other side. Look at the ground instead of at him. Someone down there is waiting for you,” the goddess looks up at Thyra who is mounted on her flying horse. Her horse, not her father's. Nelly. I’m on the flying gluestick, but he’s surprisingly obedient right now. His nostrils are flaring, puffing out steamy air, but he hasn’t thrown me off, or even attempted to. I’d say that’s progress.

Thyra’s eyes go wide as she bites her lip, her beautiful eyes glistening, and my heart clenches for her. The goddess is smiling tenderly up at her, “I know the three of you will do well together. For now, protect him while he protects your granddaughter and future Beta.”

“Future Beta?” I furrowed my brows, “I thought you said it was a teenage vampire girl with my Aly?”

The goddess smirked, tilting her face to the side to study me. “Is there something wrong with a woman being the Beta of your pack?”

My face heats, and I’m muttering incoherently, trying to find the right response.

“Or maybe it’s the fact that she is a vampire?” She quirks a brow.

“That’s not kind, grandpa. I can choose who I want as my Beta, and the goddess already told me that Phoebe would be the one I pick.”

“Fuck,” I groan. “I was just asking.”

The goddess chuckles as she walks over to Taegan, grabbing his face and bringing it down to hers. “Taegan, my lovely and magnificent boy. I will miss you greatly. I will always be watching, and I know you will do great things. You take care of Conri. He will forever be my greatest treasure, and I am now trusting him to you.”

“I will goddess,” Taegan replies, his eyes glowing the faint blue that freaks me the fuck out. He leans down and kisses her head, making her eyes close and a soft smile to spread on her face. “Thank you for everything.”

She smiles sadly, rubbing her thumbs on his cheeks before she lets him go with a heavy sigh. “You three should be off. It’s turning into madness out there. You have what you need, Taegan?”

“Right here,” he grins, patting his jacket pockets.

She nods, “Do well, my children. I will be with you in the ways I can as you go.”

With that, Taegan kicks the flank of Loreana, and she flies off with a leap, heading straight for the portal gate. Nelly and jackass take off after him, lifting us in the air, and lodging my stomach in my throat. Fuck, I hate these things.

Taegan disappears into the rainbow sheen of the portal gate, then my mate and her beast are next. Philos, the fucker, jerks forward, eager to join the others. When my skin hits the portal wall, tingles like little electrical currents shoot over my skin, making me grit my teeth. It fucking tickles like a bitch, and I refuse to laugh.

Breaking through to the other side, back into our world, nothing could have prepared me for the scene we just flew into.

It’s a fucking battle, the scent of blood filling the air. Wolves are attacking vampires below, and the alpha in me wants to join the battle, taking charge of the mayhem. The grandpa in me wants to drop down, scoop up my sleeping granddaughter from the dirt-covered ground beside the water, and lift her to safety, away from the carnage happening before her. I can’t do either of those things. I need to trust the goddess and my grandson and stick to the task I was given.

Stop Axel.

Looking at the cliff, I see Bailey on the edge. Her eyes are open wide, her pupils large, no color or movement of breath on her face. She’s dead. It burns my insides to see, especially now that I can see how far along she was in her pregnancy. She is completely lifeless, and even knowing it won't be for long, I am filled with the sorrow of her passing, tears prickling my damn eyes. There is a man standing over her, a dagger in one hand and a glass cylinder in the other, a deep red substance staining its bottom. Blood.

The urge to protect my daughter-in-law’s body rises up in me, the pack mentality trying to influence my thoughts. I don’t let it. I bury that feeling down and search for my son.

When I saw him, I knew why Taegan and the goddess gave me this sole purpose. His eyes are mad, insanity from losing his mate driving him to kill. He was running up the steep, long hill leading to the top of the cliff, and he was almost there. Two figures are chasing him at lightning speed, but he dodges every attempt they make to grab him.

My mind doesn’t need to process anything else. I know what I need to do. Stop Axel. That’s my only goal. Stop my son.

I kick Philos’s side, pulling on his mane, and to my surprise, he listens, circling around, heading for the cliff. When we are directly overhead. He dips down, and I leap off his back, the urge to shift overcoming me mid-fall. I landed heavily on my paws, crouched down and ready to fight, cutting off Axel’s pursuit.

“MOVE!” He tries to command me, but his command holds no authority over me right now.

“STAND DOWN!” I growl back at him, blocking his path when he tries to go around me.

“THEY FUCKING KILLED HER!” He snarls, trying to snap at me. I dodged his attack, ducking down and getting hold of his throat in my jaw. I bring him down, holding him to the ground in a submissive hold, letting my teeth dig in his flesh enough to not kill or fatally hurt him, but to let him know I’m not fucking around.

“They are helping her, son! They are bringing her back. Look! That is your son. He is there with that man. They will bring her back.”

“SHE”S FUCKING DEAD!” He snaps back, his tone thick with madness. Nothing will get through to him. Nothing is going to break this fog of hysterical, homicidal rage except for Bailey.

Stop Axel. That’s my only goal, and now I know why. I’m the only one that can prevent my son from dooming himself and the rest of us with him.

“Nate. Archie. Where the fuck are you?!” I called for my former Beta and Gamma in the mind link, straining to keep my son on the ground and he thrashes beneath me.

“Alpha?” Nate’s voice echoes back, “Thank fuck you’re back. Bailey, she’s….”

“She's not staying dead. She’s going to come back,” I snarled, not wanting to argue with the both of them, “Where are you?”

“I’m on my way with the medics,” Archie tells me.

“I’m the one who fucking stayed behind with Quinn and half the warriors to protect the pack in case the vampires attacked while we were vulnerable. They kidnapped Bailey and-”

I cut Nate off with a growl. “They kidnapped her to save her. I don’t have time to explain this shit, but I need you both. Axel has the men here going fucking insane with his own rage. Addison and my mate are going to get themselves killed, along with every fucking vampire here. I have to focus on stopping Axel. I need you guys.”

I can feel their apprehension in the link. They would have felt their Luna’s death as much as the rest of the warriors here.

“Casey, Nate. You need to stop Casey before he hurts Addison and gets my granddaughter killed. Archie, we have injuries on both sides. Make sure you and the medics have the means to help the vampires too.”

Nate sighs heavily. “On my way, Alpha. Fucking hell,” he growls before pulling away from the link.

“Almost there,” Archie tells me, breaking away too.

Axel’s blood fills my mouth as he continues to struggle against me. My jaw is locked, preventing him from going anywhere. His claws are digging into my side, but I just grit through the pain, and hold on.

~~~~~~~~~~

Thyra POV

The battle we flew into was the stuff of nightmares. Vampires and werewolves tearing into one another, snarls and horrifying hisses mixing with the stench of battle in the air.

I saw my brother on the cliff, and my heart stopped. My longing to go to him crashed over me like a crushing wave, the memories of only having each other for love and comfort in our childhood coming back to me.

“Look down,” a voice echoes in my mind, the only voice strong enough to force me to obey. Rieka told me to look to the ground, not at my brother. When I remember that, I see him. My son. Rian.

His hands are raised, magic flowing from his fingertips. His handsome little face is focused, reciting the spell I can only guess is for a shield to protect him and the girls lying next to him on the ground. He is stunning, and it makes tears come to my eyes realizing that he grew up so well under my brother’s care.

I circle down to the ground, sliding off Nelly, then sprinting the short distance to the shield my son is holding. I have to dodge several wolves and vampires attacking each other, but their focus isn’t on me, so no one intervenes. A beautiful vampire woman with a deep skin-tone and a powerful aura is tossing a giant brown wolf to the side. She looks familiar, but I can’t place her. She looked at me warily, but then her shoulder sagged in relief.

“You must be Alpha Max’s mate. Katherine said you would-”

Her words are just off with a grunt when the huge brown wolf lunges for her, narrowly missing biting into her shoulder with his drool-covered teeth. He does, however, start barrelling towards my son and the girls.

Rian smirks, as if he is welcoming the challenge, but then he sees me and his smirk falls from his face. His eyes go wide and the shield starts to flicker as he forgets to continue the chant.

“No,” I gasp, seeing the aftermath of what could happen if this crazed wolf gets any closer flickering through my mind. I hold my hands out and my magic flares out of me, shooting for the large wolf and entangling it in its currents. The green strands of my power look like lightening gripping his body, a half howl, half yelp leaving him as I drag him back, away from my son and the girls.

My eyes flame with my anger, and my mate mark is pulsing on my neck. I lift the wolf in the air, then toss him into the throes of his comrades, all in intense battles of their own with the vampires who are only here to protect their Luna.

“She isn’t the only Luna there,” I hear the goddess’s voice echoing in my head.

She’s right. I am the mate to their previous Alpha, the only Alpha that has their head about him right now. Bailey may be temporarily dead, but that just makes my authority over them so much greater.

Many of the wolves turned their heads in my direction, wary of the magic slipping out of me in green smoke and lightning that had just overpowered one of their strongest and biggest fighters.

I hold my head high, my bond to Max pulsing inside of me. I take a deep breath, then yell out above the noise, above the madness, above all the carnage so everyone can hear, my magic amplifying my voice with the authority I hold over them. “SHIFT!”

The command washes over them like a wave, causing all the wolves to cower before, one-by-one, they begin to shift back. They are staring at me in confusion, most of them baring their necks and the others still cowering on the ground. The only one able to fight the command is the large brown wolf I just threw. He is snarling, his wolf face contorted, like resisting is causing him great pain, but he still doesn’t shift back.

“Stand down,” my eyes glowed, my anger almost getting the better of me. My fingers are twitching with the desire to force him to obey. The only thing stopping me is the look of worry on everyone else’s faces. Whoever this wolf is, he is important in the pack. Even the vampire woman beside me is radiating nervous energy, worried about the brown wolf.

“Now,” I took a step forward, pushing my will over him. He is struggling to resist, his back arching with the desire to follow through with the command, but just when I think he’s about to finally listen, he snarls, lunging for me. I throw my hands up, ready to stop him in a fatal way if need be, but a huge gray wolf flies out of the thick forest and slams into the side of him.

The gray wolf is as big as the brown one, the same amount of authority lining the aura that surrounds him. He snarls at the wolf, pinning his body firmly to the cold, damp earth, and the brown wolf does a double take, looking back at me with surprise on his face.

He whimpers, communicating with the gray wolf, and for a moment I think we might be safe.

“Mom?” The hesitant question behind me made me turn, my eyes meeting my son’s once more. “Mom? You….you came,” he slid clumsily off the rock, watching me with wide, anxious eyes. He is so handsome, I want to cry.

“Rian,” I whispered, both my hands cupped over my mouth. “My Rian,” I sobbed, falling to my knees.

He makes a choking sound, then comes running towards me, barely giving me time to open my arms to catch him in my hold. He smells just as I remember, and the feeling of him in my arms is indescribable.

“Mom,” he cried, his arms squeezing me around my neck tight. I can feel his heart hammering in his chest, and I’m sure he can feel mine.

“I missed you,” I whispered. “I missed you more than I could ever tell you,” I breathed out, my tears dripping onto his little shaking shoulders. He is crying against my neck, his tears falling down and soaking my shirt. This is the greatest feeling, having my son with me once more. I can't wait to introduce him to Max.

We don’t have time to dwell on our reunion for much longer, because seconds later a piercing scream fills the night air, making both our heads jerk up in surprise. The shifted warriors, now all nude and in human form, are staring up at the cliff, looks of terror on all their faces. I followed their gaze, then gasped at the sight of the monster standing beside my brother.

It’s a wolf unlike any I have seen before. He is tall, twice the height of Aengus, and he is standing on two legs. His body is more human than a wolf's, though it is still covered in black fur and his legs are more canine than man's. His abdomen and arms are strong and muscled, defined and contoured in the moonlight. His eyes are glowing an icy blue, and I instantly know who it is.

Taegan.

He is standing over his mother with a blood-soaked dagger in his hands, his mouth moving and a humming chant leaving him in a deep gravelly tone, carrying through the winds and echoing around us. He lifts the dagger in his claws, holding it high above his head, and when it finally registers what he is about to do, I have no time to prepare myself.

He sinks the dagger into his mother’s chest, making everyone watching scream out in horror.